The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life
and Mission of the Church

This Bulletin is only a working instrument for
the press.
Translations are not official.

English Edition

29 - 22.10.2005

SUMMARY

♦ MESSAGE OF THE XI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF
BISHOPS

♦ MESSAGE OF THE XI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF
BISHOPS

During the Twentieth General Congregation held yesterday, Friday
21th October 2005, the Synodal Fathers approved the Message of the
Synod of Bishops to the People of God, at the conclusion of the XI
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

1. “Peace be with you!” In the name of the Lord who appeared in the
Cenacle of Jerusalem on the evening of Easter, we repeat, “Peace be
with you!” (Jn 20:21). May the mystery of his death and resurrection
bring you consolation and give meaning to the whole of your life!
May he keep you joyful and full of hope! For Christ is living in his
Church, as he promised (see Mt 28:20). He remains with us always
until the end of the world. He gives himself to us in the Most Holy
Sacrament of the Eucharist, along with the joy of loving as he
loved. He commands us to share his victorious love with our brothers
and sisters of the whole world. This is the joyful message that we
proclaim to you, beloved brothers and sisters, at the end of the
Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
again gathered us as in the Cenacle, with Mary the Mother of God and
our Mother, to recall the gift par excellence of the Holy Eucharist.

2. Called to Rome by Pope John Paul II, of venerable memory, and
confirmed by His Holiness Benedict XVI, we have come from the five
continents of the world to pray and reflect together on The
Eucharist, Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.
The goal of the Synod was to offer proposals to the Holy Father that
might help him to update and deepen the Eucharistic life of the
Church. We have been able to experience what the Holy Eucharist has
been from the very beginning: one faith and one Church, nourished by
one bread of life, in visible communion with the successor of Peter.

3. The fraternal sharing among the Bishops, the auditors, and also
the ecumenical representatives, has renewed our conviction that the
Holy Eucharist animates and transforms the life of the particular
Churches of the East and West, as well as the many human activities
in the very different circumstances in which we live. We have sensed
a profound joy in experiencing the unity of our Eucharistic faith in
the midst of the widespread diversity of rites, cultures and
pastoral situations. The presence of so many Brother bishops has
allowed us to experience, in a more direct way, the richness of our
different liturgical traditions that makes the depths of the unique
Eucharistic mystery shine forth.

We invite you, dear Christian brothers and sisters of every
confession, to pray more fervently that the day of reconciliation,
and the full visible unity of the Church might come in the
celebration of the Holy Eucharist in conformity with the prayer of
Jesus on the eve of his death: “That all may be one. As you, Father,
are in me and I am in you, that they may be one in us, so that the
world will believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21).

4. Profoundly thankful to God for the Pontificate of the Holy
Father, John Paul II, and for his final Encyclical Ecclesia de
Eucharistia, followed by the Apostolic Letter that opened the Year
of the Eucharist, Mane nobiscum Domine, we ask God to multiply the
fruits of his witness and his teaching. We also extend our thanks to
all the people of God, whose presence and solidarity we have felt
during these three weeks of prayer and reflection. The local
Churches in China, and their bishops who were not able to join us in
our work, had a special place in our thoughts and prayers.

To all of you, bishops, priests and deacons, missionaries from all
the world, consecrated men and women, lay faithful, and also to you,
men and women of good will, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit in the
name of the Risen Christ!

Listening to the Suffering of the World

5. The meeting of the Synod has been an intense time of sharing and
witnessing to the life of the Church in the different continents. We
have been made aware of extreme situations and suffering generated
by wars, hunger, different forms of terrorism and injustice, which
touch the daily life of hundreds of millions of human beings. The
explosive violence in the Middle East and in Africa has reminded us
that the African continent has been forgotten by the public opinion
of the world. Natural disasters, which seem to have multiplied,
force us to look upon nature with greater respect and to strengthen
our solidarity with those suffering peoples.

We have not remained silent before the consequences of
secularization, present above all in the West, that lead to
religious indifference and various expressions of relativism. We
have remembered and denounced the situations of injustice and
extreme poverty that are in evidence everywhere, but especially in
Latin America, in Africa and in Asia. All this suffering cries out
to God, and challenges the conscience of humanity. It challenges us
all. What is becoming of the global village of our earth, the
threatened environment that risks being ruined? What can be done so
that, in this era of globalization, solidarity might triumph over
suffering and misery? We also direct our thoughts to those who
govern the nations that they take diligent care to provide access to
the common good for all. We ask that they be promoters of the
dignity of every human being, from conception till natural death. We
ask them enact laws which respect the natural rights of marriage and
the family. For our part, we will continue to participate actively
in a common effort to generate lasting conditions for genuine
progress for the whole human family, where no one is lacking his or
her daily bread.

6. We have carried all these sufferings and these questions with us
in our Eucharistic celebration and adoration. In our debates,
listening carefully to one another, we have been moved and shaken by
the witness of the martyrs who are still present today, as
throughout the whole history of the Church, in many areas of the
world. The Synod Fathers have recalled that the martyrs have always
found the strength to overcome hatred by love and violence by
pardon, thanks to the Holy Eucharist.

“Do This in Memory of Me”

7. On the eve of his passion, “Jesus took the bread, blessed it,
broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat, this is
my body.’ Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he
gave it to them saying, ‘Drink of it all of you; for this is my
blood, the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for
the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:25-28). “Do this in memory of me”
(Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24-25). From its beginnings, the Church has
remembered the death and resurrection of Jesus with the same words
and actions of the Last Supper, asking the Spirit to transform the
bread and wine into the Body and into the Blood of Christ. We firmly
believe and we teach in the constant tradition of the Church that
the words of Jesus pronounced by the priest at the Mass, in the
power of the Holy Spirit, effect what they signify. They bring about
the real presence of the risen Christ (CCC 1366). The Church lives
from this gift par excellence that gathers it, purifies it and
transforms it into the one body of Christ, animated by the one
Spirit (see Eph 5:29).

The Eucharist is the gift of love, love of the Father who sent his
only Son so that the world might be saved (see Jn 3:16-17); the love
of Christ who loved us to the end (see Jn 13:1); the love of God
poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (see Rom 5:5), who cries
out in us “Abba, Father!” (Gal 4:6). In celebrating the Holy
Sacrifice, therefore, we joyfully announce the salvation of the
world in proclaiming the victorious death of the Lord until he
comes. In our communion with his Body, we receive the “pledge” of
our own resurrection.

8. Forty years after the Second Vatican Council we wanted to examine
to what extent the mysteries of the faith are adequately expressed
and celebrated in our liturgical assemblies. The Synod reaffirms
that the Second Vatican Council provided the necessary basis for an
authentic liturgical renewal. It is necessary now to cultivate the
positive fruits of this reform, and to correct abuses that have
crept into liturgical practice. We are convinced that respect for
the sacred character of the liturgy is transmitted by genuine
fidelity to liturgical norms of legitimate authority. No one should
consider himself master of the Church’s liturgy. Living faith that
recognizes the presence of the Lord is the first condition for
beautiful liturgical celebrations, which give a genuine “Amen” to
the glory of God. Lights in the Eucharistic life of the Church

9. The work of the Synod has proceeded in an atmosphere of fraternal
joy that has been nourished by the open discussion of various
problems and the spontaneous sharing of the fruits of the Year of
the Eucharist. The listening presence and the interventions of our
Holy Father Benedict XVI have been an example for us all and a
precious support. Many of the interventions have reported positive
and joyful events, for example: the renewed consciousness of the
importance of the Sunday Mass; the increase in the number of
vocations to the priesthood and to consecrated life in various
places of the world; the powerful experiences of the World Youth
Days, culminating at Cologne in Germany; the development of numerous
initiatives for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament almost
everywhere in the world; the renewal of the catechesis on Baptism
and the Eucharist in the light of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church; the growth of movements and communities who form
missionaries for the new evangelization; the growth in the number of
young altar servers who bring with them the hope of new vocations,
and many other events that cause us to give thanks.

Finally, the Synod Fathers hope that the Year of the Eucharist might
be a beginning and a point of departure for a new evangelization of
our globalized humanity, that begins with the Eucharist.

10. We wish that “Eucharistic wonder” (EE 6) might lead the faithful
to an always stronger life of faith. To this end, the Eastern
Orthodox and Catholic traditions celebrate the Divine Liturgy,
cultivate the prayer of Jesus and the Eucharistic fast, while the
Latin tradition fosters a “Eucharistic spirituality,” that
culminates in the celebration of the Eucharist. There is also the
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament outside Mass, Eucharistic
Benediction, processions with the Blessed Sacrament, and healthy
manifestations of popular piety. Such spirituality will certainly
prove to be a very rich resource in sustaining everyday life, and
strengthening our witness.

11. We thank God that in many countries where priests were not
present, or forced underground, the Church is now freely able to
celebrate the Holy Mysteries. The freedom to preach the Gospel and
witnesses with their renewed fervour are reawakening the faith
little by little, in areas profoundly dechristianized. We
affectionately greet and encourage all those who continue to suffer
persecution. We also ask that in those places where Christians are a
minority group, they be allowed to celebrate the Day of the Lord in
complete freedom.

Challenges for a Eucharistic Renewal

12. The life of our Churches is also marked by shadows and problems
which we have not ignored. In the first place, we think of the loss
of the sense of sin and the persistent crisis in the practice of the
Sacrament of Penance. It is important to rediscover its deepest
meaning; it is a conversion and a precious remedy given by the risen
Christ for the forgiveness of sins (see Jn 20:23) and for the growth
of love towards him and our brothers and sisters.

It is interesting to notice, that more and more young people,
suitably catechized, practice confessing their personal sins, so
revealing an awareness of the reconciliation required for the worthy
reception of Holy Communion.

13. Nevertheless, the lack of priests to celebrate the Sunday
Eucharist worries us a great deal and invites us to pray and more
actively promote priestly vocations. Some priests, undergoing great
difficulty, are forced to celebrate many times and to move from one
place to another to best meet the needs of the faithful. They truly
deserve our deep appreciation and solidarity. Our thanks goes also
to those many missionaries whose enthusiasm for the proclamation of
the Good News enables us to remain faithful today to the commandment
of the Lord to go into the whole world and to baptize in his name
(see Mt 28:19).

14. On the other hand, we are worried because the absence of the
priest makes it impossible to celebrate Mass, to celebrate the Day
of the Lord. Various forms of celebration already exist in different
continents that suffer from a lack of priests. Yet, the practice of
“spiritual communion,” dear to the Catholic tradition, can and
should be better promoted and explained so that the faithful may be
helped both to communicate sacramentally in a better way and to
bring genuine consolation to those who, for various reasons, cannot
receive the Body and Blood of Christ in communion. We believe that
this practice should help people who are alone, especially the
handicapped, the aged, those imprisoned and refugees.

15. We know the sadness of those who do not have access to
sacramental communion because of their family situations that do not
conform to the commandment of the Lord (see Mt 19:3-9). Some
divorced and remarried people sadly accept their inability to take
sacramental communion and they make an offering of it to God. Others
are not able to understand this restriction, and live with an
internal frustration. We reaffirm that, while we do not endorse
their choice (cf. CCC 2384), they are not excluded from the life of
the Church. We ask that they participate in Sunday Mass and devote
themselves assiduously to listening to the Word of God so that it
might nourish their life of faith, of love and of conversion. We
wish to tell them how close we are to them in prayer and pastoral
concern. Together, let us ask the Lord to obey his will faithfully.

16. We have also observed that in certain areas there is a lessening
of the sense of the sacred that affects not only the active and
fruitful participation of the faithful at Mass, but also the manner
in which the celebration takes place and the quality of the witness
that Christians are called to give. We seek to revive, by means of
the Holy Eucharist, the sense and joy of belonging to the Catholic
community, as an increasing number of departures from the Church is
evident in certain countries. The fact of de-Christianization calls
for a better formation to Christian life in families so that
sacramental practice is revitalized and genuinely expresses the
content of the faith. We therefore invite parents, pastors and
catechists to work toward re-establishing a strategy for
evangelization and education in the faith at the beginning of this
new millennium.

17. Before the Lord of history and the future of the world, the poor
of every generation and today, the ever-increasing number of victims
of injustice and all the forgotten of this world challenge us. They
remind us of Christ’s agony, until the end of the world. These
sufferings cannot remain extraneous to the celebration of the
Eucharistic Mystery which summons all of us to work for justice and
the transformation of the world in an active and conscious fashion,
on the basis of the social teaching of the Church that promotes the
centrality and the dignity of the human person.

“We cannot delude ourselves: mutual love and especially the care
that we show for those who are in need will indicate that we will be
recognized as true disciples of Christ (see Jn 13:35; Mt 25:31-46).
This is the criterion that will attest the authenticity of our
Eucharistic celebrations” (Mane nobiscum Domine 28).

You will be my Witnesses

18. “Jesus, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved
them to the end”. Saint John reveals the meaning of the Institution
of the Holy Eucharist in the narrative of the washing of the feet
(see Jn 13:1-20). Jesus humbles himself to wash the feet of his
disciples as a sign of his love which reaches beyond all limits.
This prophetic gesture proclaims his self-humiliation of the
following day, unto death on the Cross; an action that takes away
the sins of the world, and washes away every sin from our souls. The
Holy Eucharist is the gift of love, an encounter with the God who
loves us and a spring welling up to eternal life. Bishops, priests
and deacons, we are the first witnesses and servants of this Love.

19. Dear Priests, we have thought of you a great deal over these
days. We recognize your generosity and your challenges. You bear, in
communion with us, the burden of the daily pastoral service of the
People of God. You proclaim the Word of God, and you take care to
introduce the faithful to the Eucharistic mystery. What a grace your
ministry is! We pray with you and for you so that, together, we will
remain faithful to the love of the Lord. We ask you to be, with us
and following the example of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI,
“humble workers in the vineyard of the Lord,” following a consistent
priestly life. May the peace of Christ that you give to repentant
sinners and to the Eucharistic gatherings, flow down upon you and on
the communities that live from your witness.

We remember with gratitude the commitment of the permanent deacons,
catechists, pastoral workers and numerous lay people who work for
the community. May your service always be fruitful and generous,
nourished by a full unity of spirit and action with the Pastors of
your communities!

20. Dearly beloved brothers and sisters, we are called, in whatever
form of life we find ourselves, to live our baptismal vocation,
clothing ourselves with the sentiments of Christ Jesus (see Phil
2:2), matching one another in humility, following the example of
Christ Jesus. Our mutual love is not only an imitation of the Lord,
it is a living proof of his life-giving presence among us. We greet
and thank all consecrated people, that chosen portion of the
vineyard of the Lord who freely witness to the Good News of the
Spouse who is coming (see Rev 22:17-20). Your Eucharistic witness in
the service of Christ is a cry of love in the darkness of the world,
an echo of the ancient Marian hymns, the Stabat Mater and of the
Magnificat. May the Woman of the Eucharist par excellence, crowned
with stars, and rich in love, the Virgin of the Assumption and of
the Immaculate Conception, watch over you in your service of God and
the poor, in the joy of Easter, for the hope of the world.

21. Dear young people, the Holy Father Benedict XVI has repeatedly
said that you lose nothing when you give yourselves to Christ. We
take up again his strong and serene words from his inaugural Mass
that direct you toward true happiness, with the greatest respect for
your personal freedom: “Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing
away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we
receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to
Christ – and you will find true life”. We have great trust in your
capacity and your desire to develop the positive values in the
world, and to change what is unjust and violent. Please count upon
our support and our prayer so that we may together accept the
challenge to build the future with Christ. You are the “sentinels of
the morning” and the “explorers of the future.” Do not fail to draw
from the source of divine energy in the Holy Eucharist to bring
about the changes that are necessary.

To all young seminarians who are preparing for the priestly
ministry, and who share with their generation the same hopes for the
future, we wish to express our hope that their formation will be
permeated by an authentic Eucharistic spirituality.

22. Dear Christian married couples and your families, your vocation
to holiness begins as the domestic Church, is nourished at the Holy
Table of the Eucharist. Your faith in the Sacrament of Marriage
transforms your nuptial union into a Temple of the Holy Spirit, into
a rich source of new life, generating children, the fruit of your
love. We have often spoken of you at the Synod because we are
conscious of the fragility and the uncertainties of the world today.
Remain strong in your struggle to educate your children in the
faith. You are the source where vocations to the priesthood and the
religious life are born. Do not forget that Christ dwells in your
union; he blesses it with all the graces you need to live your
vocation in a saintly way. We encourage you to maintain the practice
of participating as a family in the Sunday Eucharist. In this way,
you bring joy to the heart of Jesus, who has said: “Let the little
children come to me” (Mk 10:14).

23. We wish to address a special word to all the suffering,
especially the sick and the handicapped, who are united with
Christ’s sacrifice through their suffering (see Rom 12:2). In your
suffering of body and heart, you participate in a special way in the
sacrifice of the Eucharist and you are privileged witnesses of the
love which comes from it. We are certain that in the moment when we
experience our own frailty and limitations, the strength of the
Eucharist can be a great help. United to the Paschal Mystery of
Christ, we find the answer to the anguish of suffering and death,
especially when sickness strikes innocent children. We are close to
you all, and especially close to those of you who are dying and who
receive the Body of Christ as Viaticum for their final journey
toward the Kingdom.

That all may be One

24. The Holy Father Benedict XVI has restated the solemn commitment
of the Church to the cause of ecumenism. We are all responsible for
this unity (see Jn 17:21), as we are all members of the family of
God because of our Baptism, graced by the same fundamental dignity
and sharing in the remarkable sacramental gift of divine life. We
all feel the sadness of separation which prevents the common
celebration of the Eucharist. We wish to intensify the prayer for
unity within communities, the exchange of gifts between the Churches
and ecclesial communities, as well as the respectful and fraternal
contact among everyone, so that we may better know and love one
another, respecting and appreciating our differences and our shared
values. The precise regulations of the Church determine the position
we are to take on sharing the Eucharist with brothers and sisters
who are not yet in full communion with us. A healthy discipline
prevents confusion and imprudent gestures that might further damage
true communion.

25. As Christians, we are close to the other descendants of Abraham:
the Jews, who were the first to inherit the Covenant, and the
Muslims. In celebrating the Holy Eucharist, we also believe that we
are, in the words of Saint Augustine, “a sacrament of humanity” (De
civ. Dei, 16), the voice of all the prayers and supplications that
rise from the earth toward God.

Conclusion: The Peace Full of Hope

Beloved Brothers and Sisters,
26. We thank God for this Eleventh Synodal Assembly which, convened
forty years after the Second Vatican Council, has made us go back to
the source of the mystery of the Church. We thus end the Year of the
Eucharist on a high note, confirmed in unity and renewed in
apostolic and missionary enthusiasm.

At the beginning of the fourth century, Christian worship was still
forbidden by the Imperial authorities. The Christians of North
Africa, committed to their celebration of the Day of the Lord,
defied the prohibition. They were martyred, because they declared
that they could not live without the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.
The 49 Martyrs of Abitene, united with so many saints and blesseds
who have made the Eucharist the center of their life, are praying
for us at the beginning of this new millennium. They teach us
faithfulness to the gathering of the New Covenant with the Risen
Christ.

At the end of this Synod we experience that Peace full of hope that
the disciples of Emmaus, with burning hearts, received from the
Risen Lord. They arose and returned in haste to Jerusalem, to share
their joy with their brothers and sisters in the faith. We hope that
you will go joyfully to meet him in the Holy Eucharist, and that you
will experience the truth of his words: “And I am with you until the
end of the world” (Mt 28:20)